The city of Alameda will co-host a drop-in meeting with PG&E for people who are concerned about the installation of “smart meters.” The meeting will be 4-7 p.m. Wednesday at the Mastick Senior Center, 1155 Santa Clara Ave.

Anyone planning to attend should bring a copy of their PG&E bill. Discussion will be limited to gas meters.

The city’s electric utility, Alameda Municipal Power, is not installing smart meters at this time.

Celebrate July 4 aboard the Hornet

The USS Hornet will host its annual Independence Day celebration, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. July 4, with live music, interactive games and a bounce house for kids.

Tours of the aircraft carrier also will be available, while during the evening visitors can watch fireworks from the flight deck.

Bands scheduled to perform include country rock outfit The Bell Brothers, Tempest, who perform Celtic rock, and the headliner 3 O’Clock Jump.

All-day admission is $25 for adults ($20 in advance) and $10 for children ages 5-17. Museum members get in free.

Alameda mayoral candidate Tony Daysog will visit Franklin Park from 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Saturday, when he will be available to talk with residents about their issues and concerns, as well as share his vision for Alameda.

Coffee will be available. The park is at 1432 San Antonio Ave. For information, go to www.daysog.com or call 510-864-7593.

Poetry on exhibit at Alameda Towne Centre

Visitors to Alameda Towne Centre are invited to read the work of more than 54 poets — or more than 83 poems — now posted on store doors and business windows through the end of June.

Known as “Summer Site Write,” the project encourages people to visit Alameda businesses and to write and share their own poems.

The public can comment on poems via Twitter until June 30.

The poet with the most comments will receive a prize and may read his or her poem 7 p.m., July 7, at the center’s Borders Books as part of the reading series hosted by Alameda Island Poets.

Hands Across the Sand protest Saturday

Local organizers are joining the national “Hands Across the Sand” protest of offshore oil drilling and support for clean energy alternatives on Saturday. Inteested individuals are asked to meet at Crown Memorial Beach at noon Saturday. For more information about the national protest, go to www.handsacrossthesand.org.

The California Highway Patrol has released a video of one of its helicopter crews performing a dramatic rescue of two British men who were stranded on the edge of a massive granite cliff overlooking Yosemite Valley as a major snow storm was nearing.

A researcher at a university in the U.K. who came up with a mathematical equation declaring the third Monday in January as "the most depressing day of the year." A mental health advocate has debunked that theory.